Fermenting Feed for Meat Birds

[ozexpat]

The deep litter is wood shavings from a local sawmill where they use shapers to make different kinds of trim. I am fortunate that it comes at a very nice price so I can use lots of it.
The brooder area is 4'X10' allowing the chicks to reach a nice size before getting out with the chickens. At this time the left end, about 4'X4' has another hen in it with 7 chicks. She had hatched 1 chick of her own, the other 2 eggs weren't fertile as this was her first nesting, then to give her purpose I went to the feed store (granero) and bought 6 meat chicks for her to raise as well which went right under her (at night). She is one fearsome momma, she will peck you if you try to reach in to get the feeder.
This is the right end of the brooder area, these chicks are now about 5 weeks old and momma has gone off with papa.
This is the left end of the brooder area which is now sectioned off for the new momma hen to raise her 1 chick and 6 meaties. The 10 chicks shown here are now the 5 week old chicks, there are only 6 as 4 were given away.
This shows the brooder area in the correct perspective. In this photo the left area had not been sectioned off. These cockerels were the 36 that we were told was a 50/50 run, wrong, out of the 36 we ended up with 4 pullets, the rest are resting in the freezer.
We have had difficulties figuring out what chickens (to buy) are good for what here so we have decided that raising our own and culling them to end up with good layers is the best way to go for us.

I too love your set up. Making use of local wood chips is great. In the Philippines I use rice husks for my litter. I was wondering what to use and the rice husks were suggested on this site. In our area they just pile up in mountains on the side of the road next to small rice mills.

Good luck with your layer development. You may be able to find where in your country they produce the eggs sold in the markets and buy some older birds culled because production has dropped off. They may not be giving you 7 eggs a week but their daughters will improve your flock.

 

[Costa Rica Art]

I too love your set up. Making use of local wood chips is great. In the Philippines I use rice husks for my litter. I was wondering what to use and the rice husks were suggested on this site. In our area they just pile up in mountains on the side of the road next to small rice mills.

Good luck with your layer development. You may be able to find where in your country they produce the eggs sold in the markets and buy some older birds culled because production has dropped off. They may not be giving you 7 eggs a week but their daughters will improve your flock.

I guess there are some of my post you have missed. Right now there are 4 good layers (need to get rid of the last 4 or some cockerels who now think they should be doing the hens. There are at least 2 or 3 pullets trying to lay as well, could be more once these other cockerels are gone, maybe tomorrow. Right now we are going thru 4 to 6 eggs a day which so far they are managing to keep up with. some of the chicks are from our rooster and our black hen which we hope are all hens and will lay those huge eggs she does. When these cockerels are gone and the hens have settled down we will in a month or so start saving her eggs and hoping someone goes to sitting when we have saved 6 to 8 of her eggs.
This roo and the black hen in the background are the two we will build our flock from. The brown hens are now laying as are the pullets but the black pullet in the foreground hasn't started yet.
Here are some of the hens when they were younger as the little bantam roo has been gone over a month.
I'll have to get busy this week and take some new photos of some of the flock and post them.

 

[ozexpat]

I guess there are some of my post you have missed. Right now there are 4 good layers (need to get rid of the last 4 or some cockerels who now think they should be doing the hens. There are at least 2 or 3 pullets trying to lay as well, could be more once these other cockerels are gone, maybe tomorrow. Right now we are going thru 4 to 6 eggs a day which so far they are managing to keep up with. some of the chicks are from our rooster and our black hen which we hope are all hens and will lay those huge eggs she does. When these cockerels are gone and the hens have settled down we will in a month or so start saving her eggs and hoping someone goes to sitting when we have saved 6 to 8 of her eggs.
This roo and the black hen in the background are the two we will build our flock from. The brown hens are now laying as are the pullets but the black pullet in the foreground hasn't started yet.
Here are some of the hens when they were younger as the little bantam roo has been gone over a month.
I'll have to get busy this week and take some new photos of some of the flock and post them.

it seems like you have a great plan. I love the look of your rooster.

 

[BlueMouse]

Wild yeast colonies are not always populous and can take some time to come out of dormancy - especially if you live in a cooler climate. In early brewing days, they would go to specific areas where they had had success before and brew there. The reason was because they knew they would be able to get a viable culture - and, flavours of fermentation can be affected by the colony that decides to populate your mixture.

If you are wanting a truly wild culture, you will need to sweeten the pot. Yeast needs sugar to get kick started. It is their morning java, if you will.

That makes total sense. I have just added a bit of sugar to my mix. Encouraged to see a little floating foam today, maybe it's starting to brew! Smelling more strongly of pickle as well.

as far as meat IN the ferment, I can only imagine the kind of smell that would throw off.

I've just been adding it on the top, and they gobble it right up!

thank you everyone for the sources of more info about mixing my own ration, this is going to be a process of evolution as I attemp to have the healthiest happiest birds I can and not break the bank...

I also finished a proper feeder, I've been feeding out of a disposable bread pan which they've been kicking all over the coop.


I took some of the great ideas people had on here, and used some stuff I had hanging around to cobble something together. Did anyone know that the lid from a yogurt/cottage cheese container fits just about perfectly on the ends of a 4" PVC pipe? I just cut it in half and glued it on. that will keep the ferment from rotting the wood, and was sure a lot cheaper than buying end caps!


The two little piggies. I think I may be feeding them too much, they didn't clean this all up in ten minutes or so. I'm terribly worried about under feeding them since there's still basically no forage this time of year....


My Mr. Bennet giving me the beady eye. He's very gentle, but he does like to give me the stink eye.

 

[Kjordanov]

I

[COLOR=0000FF]I still use covered feeders for chicks. If I don't then they either scatter it all over or the broody hen does or she fills the feeder with wood shavings. Once they can't reach any more FF then the feeder is taken up and shook out letting them scratch for the leftovers. I have the feeders mounted on a wide raised board to minimize the hen filling the feeder with wood shavings when she scratches. The feeders are held on the board with rubber bands attached on one end to eye screws, the other end with hooks for easy removal/mounting. This is working very well for the FF which contains chick starter and some cracked corn. [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF] [/COLOR] [COLOR=0000FF] [/COLOR]

I wish I could find some giant feeders like your green covered feeders!! My hens scatter it everywhere even when it's raised above ground! Gah!

 

[Kilsharion]

That makes total sense. I have just added a bit of sugar to my mix. Encouraged to see a little floating foam today, maybe it's starting to brew! Smelling more strongly of pickle as well.

as far as meat IN the ferment, I can only imagine the kind of smell that would throw off.

I've just been adding it on the top, and they gobble it right up!

thank you everyone for the sources of more info about mixing my own ration, this is going to be a process of evolution as I attemp to have the healthiest happiest birds I can and not break the bank...

I also finished a proper feeder, I've been feeding out of a disposable bread pan which they've been kicking all over the coop.


I took some of the great ideas people had on here, and used some stuff I had hanging around to cobble something together. Did anyone know that the lid from a yogurt/cottage cheese container fits just about perfectly on the ends of a 4" PVC pipe? I just cut it in half and glued it on. that will keep the ferment from rotting the wood, and was sure a lot cheaper than buying end caps!


The two little piggies. I think I may be feeding them too much, they didn't clean this all up in ten minutes or so. I'm terribly worried about under feeding them since there's still basically no forage this time of year....


My Mr. Bennet giving me the beady eye. He's very gentle, but he does like to give me the stink eye.

Don't worry about them not eating it all in 10 minutes or so - it can sit all day and then some and still be fine. The question is more - will they eat it through the rest of the day? If they do, then you're golden. Kinda like how beer doesn't go "bad" when you leave it sitting out...technically. But most won't touch it after it's gotten warm and stale

I like your feeder - I may have to give that some thought in my next coop...

 

[SunnysMama]

That makes total sense. I have just added a bit of sugar to my mix. Encouraged to see a little floating foam today, maybe it's starting to brew! Smelling more strongly of pickle as well.

as far as meat IN the ferment, I can only imagine the kind of smell that would throw off.

I've just been adding it on the top, and they gobble it right up!

thank you everyone for the sources of more info about mixing my own ration, this is going to be a process of evolution as I attemp to have the healthiest happiest birds I can and not break the bank...

I also finished a proper feeder, I've been feeding out of a disposable bread pan which they've been kicking all over the coop.


I took some of the great ideas people had on here, and used some stuff I had hanging around to cobble something together. Did anyone know that the lid from a yogurt/cottage cheese container fits just about perfectly on the ends of a 4" PVC pipe? I just cut it in half and glued it on. that will keep the ferment from rotting the wood, and was sure a lot cheaper than buying end caps!


The two little piggies. I think I may be feeding them too much, they didn't clean this all up in ten minutes or so. I'm terribly worried about under feeding them since there's still basically no forage this time of year....


My Mr. Bennet giving me the beady eye. He's very gentle, but he does like to give me the stink eye.

Your feeder looks great, very similar to mine! I feed my girls (52) about 8 quarts of fermented feed a day and they usually don't finish it up until late morning the next day. They have never refused to eat it although they tend to leave the oats for very last. I usually just take and dump it in their run and amazingly enough they eat every bit of it, I think they like scratching for it. At this point I still offer my girls free choice crumbles along with their fermented grains.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I

I wish I could find some giant feeders like your green covered feeders!! My hens scatter it everywhere even when it's raised above ground! Gah!

I have done something to help with that situation.

The feeders are plastic and easy to pierce with a screw. I have screwed mine to a 2x4 or a piece of plywood and raised it up on a stand and attached it to that so that it could not be scratched off and scattered. Generally, I make a low shelf, perhaps a foot off the floor with a ramp going up so the chicks can get up there. The feed pan is generally raised a little further. Not so high the chicks can't eat but it is firmly attached so the hen can't scratch it all over the place and fill it with shavings.

 

[Kjordanov]

I have done something to help with that situation.

The feeders are plastic and easy to pierce with a screw.  I have screwed mine to a 2x4 or a piece of plywood and raised it up on a stand and attached it to that so that it could not be scratched off and scattered.  Generally, I make a low shelf, perhaps a foot off the floor with a ramp going up so the chicks can get up there.  The feed pan is generally raised a little further.  Not so high the chicks can't eat but it is firmly attached so the hen can't scratch it all over the place and fill it with shavings.

Can you post a picture? For some reason I can't visualize that. :/

 

[Lacy Blues]

I'll have to see if I can find one. Otherwise, as my current chicks get moved to the barns, I'll take pictures. If I get a broody and have to outsmart her again, I'll take more pictures.

In other words... I'll try. Not tonight though. I'll see what I can find.